Device for clearing obstructions from the path of vehicles.



H. W. H. POWEL 6: T. S. SAFE. DEVICE FOR CLEARING OBSTRUGTIONS FROM THEPATH 0F VEHIGLES.

APPLIOATIOH FILED NOV. 18, 1907.

P tented Aug. 24, 1909. 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

ATTORNEYA.

v H. w. H. POWEL & T. s. SAFE. DEVICE FOR CLEARING OBS'I'BUCTIONS FROMTHE PATH 0F VEHICLES. APPLIO'ATIOI FILED NOV. 18, 1907. 93 1 ,885 YPatented Aug. 24, 1909.

2 BEETS-SHEET 2.

' ATTORNEYS.

to the rear wheel of Fig. 1.

UNITED STATES PATENT HARFORD' W. H. POWEL AND THOMAS 8. SAFE, NEWPORT,RHDBE LAND.

DEVICE FOR CLEARING OBSTRUCTIONS FROM THE- PATH OF VEHICIES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug.

To all whom cit may concern: 4

Be it, known that we, Hnnronn W. H. Power., a citizen of the UnitedStates, and THoMAs S. SAFE, s. Britishsuhject, both residin at Ne ort,in the county of Newport and tate ol llihode-lsland, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Devices for Clearing Obstructionsfrom the Path of Vehicles; and we do hereby declare the following to bea full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as willenable othersv skilled in the art to whichit appertains to make and usethe same.

The object of the device E to clear from the paths oithe'wheels ofvehicles, particularly where the wheels are equipped with puncturabletires, small pieces oi iron and the like, and to some extent other smallo-bjccts, which are capable of uncturing or otherwise injuring thetires. this end we provide a magnet, supported just above the groundiii-front of the Wheel-and adapted to pickup small ieces of iron, suchas nails, tacks and the ike, and which at the some time is adapted tostrike frornithe path of the wheels other small objects which are notcapeble of being magnetized, and which is so constructed and supportedas to be durable, and eflicient for the purpose intended.

The construction and operation of the inrproved device, and the mannerin which the desired objects are attained, will he Linden stood from thefollowing description and the accompanying drawings which describe and36 illustrate the preferred form of the device in its general aspect,and various useful details of construction which may be used to advantoe in connection therewith.

I n the drawings the same reference letters refer to the like partsthroughout the several Views.

v Figure-1 is a central section'oi the chassis of amotor car showing thefront and rear equipped with our improved guarding device. Fig. 2 issfront.

whee-ls .in elevation and elevation of the guarding device .as appliedFig. 3- is a sectional detail view showing a. safety arrangement foropening the energizing circuits of the magnet under certain specifiedconditions. Fig. 4 is a. plan view of one'oi the the screw-threaded endof the nut. is screw-threaded and passes through a suit- 'eble art ofthe framework where it is so- I cured :to vary the .distsnceabove theground at 9 a as shown. The guarding devices for the 2 front wheels aresu ported from the T-head I of the'conventional 1 springs a should bestiff so that if the magnet f strikes small obstructions such as sharprocks and the like, they may throw suc ;obstructions out of the path ofthe wheels, but the springs should have suflicient flexifront wheels ofFig. 1 and its associated parts showing the manner of support of theguarding device. Fig. 5 is a detail View of a modified construction'of amagnet. Fig. isa front elevation of one axle and a pair 011 Wheelsequipped with a device for throwing the guarding magnets to one side andsin1u1- taneously denergizing them. Figs. 6" and 6' are detail views ofthe gearing forming p art of this inechanism. Fig. 7 a plan view of a.portion of the mechanism showing the corn necting rods by which theguarding devices are operated, and Fig. 7 is an elevation of the same. 8is a view showing the mannor of operation of the guarding device when itstrikes an obstruction, and Figs. 9 and 9 show a mechanism for causingthe guarding device to be thrown to one side when it strikes a largeobstruction.

In the construction shown in 1, the chassis A is supported on the axlescarrying the rear wheels B and the front wheels B. Each of the guardingdevices comprises a stiff coil spring ci ,hung in front of the wheel,and just above the ground by a. rod of which is a continuation of thecoiled spring. The other end of the spring is againcontinucd into avertical rod an supports 9. pair of magnets '1) connected together by aniron armature b at the top, and through which sup rting lace by a cokinghe upperen-d of t esupporting rod rod is assed and held in bylockingnuts which may be adjusted which the magnets are supported.

The magnets are energized by current ffrorn batteries 0 supported .onthe body of fithe vehicle; rear wheels are hung directly from the --Theguerelingdevicesof the framework of the vehicle by the bent rodssteering knuckle. The

spring or to the top of t bility so that if the magnets strike it firmlyembedded obstruction the springs may flex as indicated in Fig. 8.

In the construction shown in Fig. 3 (which is intended to open thecurrent of the magnet if the vehicle passes over a'iirmly embeddedmagnetizable body, in order to revent the magnet from being drawnbeneath the wheel) a tubular portion 6 is interposed in the supportingconnection of the guarding device between the frame of the vehicle andthe coil spring, and within this tubular portion are two sliding blocksa carrying contact pieces forming terminals for the circuit connections.Each of these blocks is fastened to a flexible rod, one of which rods isconnected to the upper'coil of the coil spring and the other to thelower coil, as shown, so that when the spring is extended by theattraction between themagnet and the embedded magnetizable body the,sliding contact blocks are displaced to open the circuit. It would be1possible to effect the same result by. me ing one set of contactterminals stationary witl in the tubular part e and connecting the otherset to the lower ortion of the coil e magnet, but the constructionillustrated in Fig. 3 is preferred. The energizing coils of the magnetsmay be wound upon spools and the spools slipped upon the magnet cores,or the winding may be secured about the cores in other we known ways,but We prefer to use the construction and arrangement illustrated inFig. 5, in which the core of the magnet is formed with a double spiralgroove and the energizing coils are wound'in this groove as shown, sothat they are practically embedded in the structure of the magnet. Weprefer to then inclose the coils by an iron sheathing f, making aniron-clad magnet, thereby increasing the strength of the magnet andfurther protecting it against abrasion and injury.

The and 7 are intended to th ow the guarding devices with their magnetsto one side periodi cally or at will, and simultaneously deenergize themso as to throw down the iron objects which they have picked up. The mainshaft of the machine, 9', carries a worm gear meshing with a corresonding gear g supported in the frame-wor h. The rotation of the gear 9is transmitted through a suitable reduction gear 9' to the shaftcarrying the small gear t, which carries a pin i adapted to throw downone end of the lever is and by raising the other end release one half ofa ciutch- E, which is thereupon thrown by the spring 2" into engagementwith the other half of the clutch which is fixed on the shaft 2% drivenfrom the main shaft through the This shaft carries on its outer endgears m.

devices illustrated ip Figs. 6, 6 6 7 to be operated by the lever 11.pivoted at o.

the crank wheel a, which is connected through the rod n to the upper endof one of the rods a carrying the guarding devices. It will be observedthat this connection between the rod n and the upper end of a is bymeans of a hook for a purpose which will be further described, and asshown in Fig. 7 The upper end of this rod a is connected to the upperend of the other rod a by means of the rod p. The upper end-of each ofthe rods (1 terminates in a circular boss which is mounted to turn on ahub 1' projecting from a circular plate 1", and, projecting from eachboss is a contact piece 8 to which one wire of the battery circuit isconnected. The other wire of the battery circuit is connected to acontact plate .9 on the stationary plate 1". The operation of theseparts is as follows:

,The rotation of the main shaft is transmitted, being reduced to thedesired extent by the reduction gearing, to the gear '1', so that thatgear is rotated, say, once for every hundred revolutions of the mainshaft. The rotation of the gear 1' causes the in i to throw down one endof the lever 7c, li ting the other end,'and allowing the spring I tothrow the two halves of the clutch into engagement. This allows thegears m to give a throw to the crank-wheel n, and the gear 1 immediatelythrows itself out of engagement allowing the lever is to again fallbehind the stop k on the clutch mechanism. This throw of the crank-wheeln is transmitted through the rod 'n to throw out the upper end of therod (1 to which it is connected, and thereby throw the guarding devicebeneath the machine and simultaneously denergize the magnets by breakingthe circuit connections at s, s.

This throw is transmitted through the rod 7) to the other rod (1, thusthrowing its guarding device beneath the machine. On account of thedenergizing of the magnets the iron objects which have been picked up bythem will be de osited in the pan t. For the pur ose of ena ling thedriver to transmit sue a throw to the guarding devices at will,

either for the purpose of jects picked up thereby, or for the pur ose ofremoving them from the'path' of an o struction,- the following mechanismis provided. In the floor of the car, in convenient position foot of thedriver, is the button it fastened to the upper end of a The other end ofthis lever has a stirrup a through which the rod n passes. Between thestirrup and the pivot 0 depends the link to which is connected at itslower end to the lever to pivoted at x, and carrying a in 29 adapted toengage the under surface of t e arm you the head of the rod 0/. Bydepressing this button a they rod 72. is lifted, disconnecting theautomatic throwing mechanism, and the guarding device is thrown by meansof the lever a2 and the arm y.

discharging the ob This throw is transmitted to the other guard ingdevice, as before. In order that the guarding devices may be locked inan elevated position beneath the machine, a latch z is rovided in thefloor of the car adapted to hold down the button u. g

, The arrangement shown in Figs. 9 and 9, is adapted to prevent aninjury to the guarding device by coming' in contactwith a fixedobstruction such, for example, as a curb stone when the car isapproaching the curb. To this end two disks D D, faced with leather E,are interposed in the rod a be-. tween the coiled slprmg and the supportfor the rod 0'. A b0 G is secured to the disk D and asses through thedisk D, and a s ring is interposed between the nut F on tiie end of therod G and the disk D; thereby pressing the disks D and D together. Thesetwo disks are set at an angle to the plane of the wheel, as shown, sothat when the magnet strikes an obstruction and is thrown back towardthe wheel, it will also be thrown to one side to prevent its beingover-ridden by the wheels and. to remove it from any possibility ofinjury. Other means for preventing the over-riding of the magneticstructure by the wheels, or the undue elongation of the supportingspring for any other cause, are illustrated in Figs. 1 and 3. In Fig. 1,the slack chain 6 extends from the iron armature b of the magneticstructure to the su porting arm for the guarding device, and it will beseen that this chain will afford a positive stop to the extension of thes ring a. Similarly in Fig. 3 the sliding bloc: e in its downwardmovement engages the staple e which also affords a positive stop to'thedownward movement of the s ring.

It wil be understood that the features illustrated in Figs. 3 and 9 maybe applied to the machine as illustrated in Fig. 1, for example, andthat in general the different features herein illustrated and describedmay be applied separately or'together, as circumstances may dictate. Itwill furthermore be understood that the guarding magnet may be made 11of a plurality of small magnets b or the lilie extended to any desiredextent across the path of the vehicle.

What we claim is:' 7

LA tire guarding device for vehicles comprising an electro-magnet havingenergizing windings embedded therein, a sup-- port for the magnetholding it near the ground in front of the wheel, a source of cur renton the vehicle body, and connections be tween the source of current andthe energizing windings; substantially as described.

2. A tire-guarding device for vehicles comprising a bar electro-magnethaving energizing windings embedded therein and connected with asuitablesource of current on I rhea nsecurity, poit for yieldinglysupporting the magnet with one of its poles in front of the wheei nearthe ground, substantially as described.

comprising an iron-clad electro-magnet hav ing energizing windingsconnected with a suitable source of current on the vehicle body, and astiff but flexible support for yieldingly supporting the magnet in frontof the wheel near the ground, substantially as described. 4. Atire-guarding device for vehicles, comprising an electro-magnet sup)orted front of the wheel near the ground connections from theenergizing coils of said mag; net to a suitable source of electriccurrent on the vehicle body, and contacts in said connections adapted tobe opened by the drawing down of said magnet toward the ground, wherebinjury to the tire-guarding device due to ed magnetizable bodies in theroadway is prevented, substantially as described. 5. A tire-guardingdevice for vehicles, comprising an electro-Inagnet hun from the vehiclein front of the wheel near t e ground by means of connections includinga tubular portion and a stiff coiled spring, connections and a suitablesource of electric current on the vehicle body, separable contactswithin the tubular portion of the support through whichthe circuitconnections lead, and mechanism connected with the spring for separatingsaid contacts when the spring is elongated, substantially as described.

- 6. A tireguarding device for vehicles, comprising an electro-magnet suported in front of the wheel near the ground and energized by anelectric current from a suitable source on the vehicle body, andmeansfor the electro-magnet to one side of the path of the wheel andsimultaneously deenergizing it, substantially as described.

7. A tire-guarding device forvehicles, comprising an electro-magnetysuported in front of the wheel near the groun and energized by an electriccurrent from a suitable source on the vehicle body, and means under thecontrol of an occupant of the vehicle for throwing the ma net to oneside of the path of the wheel an ing it, substantially as described.

comprising a magnet supported in front of the wheel near the ground ona-pivoted support which is capable of being turned on its pivot so thatthe magnet lies beneath the vehicle body out of the path of the wheels,

and mechanism for locking the su port in that position,

substantially as descr1bed.

9'. A tire-guarding device for vehic'les, comprising a magnet supportedin front of maasna But amine Sap;

automatically and periodically throwing 8. A tire-guarding device forvehicles,

3. A tire guarding devicefor vehicles,

etween the energizing coils of the magnet simultaneously denergiztheWheel near the ground by means of a suport depending from the vehicle,and means described. interposed in said support for automatically Intestimony whereof We afiix our signaphroving the21 nilagnelt tlobonesidp as it is tures, in presence of two Witnesses. 5 orce towar t e w eean 0 struction,

substantially as described. POWEL 10. A, tire guarding device forvehicles, comprising a magnet supported near the \Vitn esses: ground infront of the whee by a stifi coiled WM. J. H. STEWART,

extension of said spring; substantially as i 1?) spring,. and a positivestop for limiting the N. E. DWYER.

